The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth - Alexandra Robbins [82]
In the business world, people who live their lives according to their core values tend to have strong brands with devoted followings. Craigslist, which is worth more than $5 billion, succeeds because of its down-to-earth “nerd values,” wrote founder Craig Newmark, who “grew up wearing a plastic pocket protector and thick, black glasses, taped together, the full nerd cliché.” Ben and Jerry, of the eponymous ice-cream brand, have said that they became successful because, although they didn’t always know what they were doing, they knew why they were doing it. They view the company as a values-led business that promotes “social progress for the common good: advocating for the many people in our society whose needs are not served by the status quo; giving a voice to the people who normally aren’t heard.” (Ben and Jerry, who met in school as shy boys and the two slowest students in gym class, are also known for their creative marketing and business policies.)
Certainly one need not be a leader to be successful, admired, or respected in adulthood, but it’s worth mentioning that self-awareness is extolled by many management experts. In The 108 Skills of Natural Born Leaders, University of Houston management professor Warren Blank listed self-awareness as number one. “Self-awareness is fundamental to leadership growth,” Blank wrote. Self-aware people “know their strengths, weaknesses, and assumptions. They understand their motives and recognize what deserves attention. . . . Master leaders also know how to demonstrate strong emotions.”
Fall Out Boy, the multiplatinum, Grammy-nominated punk-pop band that has been called “the kings of emo,” is famous for expressing emotions authentically. As one magazine observed, “an entire generation hears its own experiences described in the genre’s diaristic lyrics about tortured romances and crippling self-doubt, and it prizes these scars like priceless jewels. Emo bands don’t merely wear their heart on their sleeve—they lift up their sleeve to show the bloody wounds underneath.” Frontman Pete Wentz, the bassist and lyricist famous as much for his guyliner (male eyeliner) as for his outspokenness, has called his music “a giant pop-culture idea, but it’s still weird and different.”
Wentz, who once dyed his hair blue, can relate. In high school, although he was a talented soccer player, he was also an emo, “a solitary guy. I was definitely into invisible friends and making up stories,” he has said. “I was pretty outcast, but a lot of it was by choice. I was kind of a geek. . . . I looked weird.” He has been open about his depression and stints in therapy.
Today, Fall Out Boy, as one reviewer put it, is known for “Wentz’s deeply personal, introspective lyrics about self-doubt and self-loathing.” (It is also known for its long song titles, such as “Our Lawyer Made Us Change the Name of This Song So We Wouldn’t Get Sued” and “I Slept with Someone in Fall Out Boy and All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written about Me.”) The band is “equal parts protector and patron saint of misfit underdogs,” said another reviewer. By listening to the voice within him and sharing it unabashedly, Wentz has led Fall Out Boy to become not just a band, but, as Jay-Z called it, a movement. “People don’t realize it’s okay to feel down and sad sometimes. It is part of the cycle of feeling okay,” Wentz has said. “There is an honesty in our music and I think people appreciate it. . . . We have always written what we are really feeling.”
Wentz has created many outlets